CENTCOM kills key figure of al-Qaida affiliate in Syrian airstrike
by Darryl Coote
Washington DC (UPI) Jan 30, 2025

The U.S. military said Thursday night that it killed a senior operative of an al-Qaida-affiliated group in an airstrike in northwest Syria.

Muhammad Salah al-Za'bir was a key figure in Hurras al-Din, an al-Qaida-aligned group that formed in Syria in early 2018 and was designated by the U.S. government as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Organization in September 2019.

U.S. Central Command said al-Za'bir was targeted and killed in a "precision airstrike" on Thursday.

The strike marks the first in Syria by CENTCOM this year, though Syrian Democratic Forces, enabled by CENTCOM, conducted anti-Islamic State operations in the Middle Eastern country from Jan. 2-3, capturing an ISIS attack cell leader.

"CENTCOM will continue to hunt and kill or capture terrorists, and defend our homeland, against groups that plot to attack U.S. and allied personnel," Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, commander of CENTCOM, said Thursday in a statement.

According to the U.S. military, the attack was part of CENTCOM's commitment to disrupting and degrading terrorist efforts to conduct attacks against civilians and military personnel throughout the region and in the United States.

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